Kevin Spacey Recast, Reshot in a Movie that’s Out in Like Six Weeks

Christopher Plummer will assume Spacey's role in "All the Money in the World," which is still set for December release.

In one of the stranger aftershocks of the tidal wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations engulfing the entertainment industry, director Ridley Scott has recast Kevin Spacey’s role in the already-completed film All the Money in the World, and will reshoot and reinsert his scenes in time for the film’s scheduled December theatrical bow.

The film tells the true story of the 1973 kidnapping of J. Paul Getty III – grandson of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, originally played by Spacey. It is not a leading role, but an important enough one that Scott’s initial pick for it, Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer, was turned down by Sony in favor of a bigger name. Now, Scott gets to go back to his first choice. (The first trailer, which includes Spacey, is here – for now.)

The swap-out may be easier than it sounds; Spacey’s work was shot in approximately two weeks (though some reports have him on set for as little as eight days), and includes “plenty of scenes where Getty is the only main character in the shot,” according to Variety. Spacey’s co-stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg have agreed to return for the reshoots, and understandably so; goodness knows neither Wahlberg nor Williams would want to appear in a film with someone accused of untoward acts. (And Wahlberg himself is, of course, a model for clean living.)

So yeah, things are looking pretty grim for Spacey, whose initial on-the-record accusation from Adam Rapp has snowballed into a flurry of subsequent accusations and skeezy stories. The final season of his Netflix series House of Cards will write him out, and the streaming service is clearing space in their vaults (perhaps next to that last, unaired Cosby special) for the recently completed, Spacey-fronted Gore Vidal biopic Gore.

Anyway, if Scott and his crew pull this thing off, All the Money in the World will hit theaters on December 22. Stay tuned.